2024 IT Job Market Outlook: Challenges or Opportunities? | Ep. 119

With job market statistics showing a decline in the number of jobs available, is it still a good time to look for a new job in the tech space? Keith chats with Computerworld’s Lucas Mearian about the optimism in the IT/tech job space, what kind of key skills people will need as they look for a new position, and hot job areas in tech.
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Keith Shaw
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[@cesarlabastida1392]

The issue is the way that companies approach hiring, they believe that by testing engineers on how to solve algorithmic problems under pressure lets them filter out the good engineers. But this is not the case anymore, in fact the algorithmic and complex coding will be delegated to ai. A good engineer focuses on how to build good software based on what tool to use on each specific task. Is more about seeing the whole software architecture and understanding how to build software at scale. Also communication skills matter a lot as well as working with other engineers. Also another thing is that people just want to write code and expect to make alot of money but this is not useful because, you will always depend on someone telling you what to write but being able to know what to write means understanding the whole picture and what you are trying to achieve. The code has always been provided by google or at least code examples of something similar that you need, but now ai provides that just faster.

[@morisn]

20:15 - yes, but if you want to keep your jobs in the US (and Canada) you have to fight for your rights. With remote work, yes, there may be 500k jobs just to throw a number but where? If legislation is not serious about balancing the pay rate vs human capital then jobs will keep on leaving. It's another conversation altogether but when you get laid off even if you're a top performer ( when all the KPIs are thrown out of the window) it makes you think hard about these things.

[@morisn]

AI won't replace employees? ideally no, but that's the utopia that jobs will not be eliminated but improved, signed by the CIO. I still think that the CIO has their heart in the right place but reality is what drives profits and that is: Mo' for less. If companies can make more money by implementing repetitive tasks via automation, they will go for that and if it's a non-union workforce they are out of luck. That's just the way it is and we have to brace for that change.

[@user-mb5on8jo4c]

Sounds like Lucas love speculation or hallucination whatever you call it. I was actually hoping for more of analysis, specifically for 2024. However, it’s another “I think so” type of opinion or belief for things in general. Nothing really much to do with 2024 Tech Job market. I was also hoping he’s aware of ghost job postings, but, seems a bit out of touch. I prefer big tech, because I am 45 years old and tech industry has agism for sure. But, big tech tends to have less. They are a lot more diverse as well. Anyhow, last year, I applied probably around 1000 positions all SMBs, got around 10 interviews. I am looking for evidence if this year could be better so I could direct myself towards either more of job searching or sideways towards side business.

[@IDGTECHtalk]

There was another episode last week we did with Chui Senanyake where we discussed some of the ageism issues and ghost/phantom job listings. Check that one out to see if there is some other advice for you. All indications are that for jobs in the tech space, things should be at least better than the general job market. Thanks for watching!

[@nickross4059]

agreed. Very thin on actual analysis but plenty of boomerisms and platitudes. "employers look for someone who can problem solve" is a no-shit type statement.

[@duthegee]

4:57 soft skills? HAHA, Are we really going to pretend like this is the main issue for tech jobs? They are not looking for people who can adapt or who can 'communicate' during the interviews. They are looking for the unicorns who have already done everything the job descriptions require. What a typical useless HR answer.